Domesticity
by zarabithia
Summary: Dick gets the happy family life he deserves with a woman that deserves him.


**Title: Domesticity  
Disclaimer: If I owned them, that whole unfortunate Nightwing 117 mess never would have happened.  
Pairing: Dick/Kory  
Summary: Kory watches her family grow. **

**--------- **

Kory tested the weight of the potato sack with her toe before glancing out the kitchen window to make sure her husband's attention was still diverted. Seeing that his focus was still entirely wrapped up in pushing their first daughter on the swing - and that his back was turned - she leaned down and hoisted the bag onto the counter. Quickly, while Dick was still preoccupied, she took the necessary potatoes out of the bag and returned the sack to its' rightful place before her husband could notice her "manual" labor.

The steps may have seemed silly to anyone else, but Dick grew increasingly protective as the time for their second child to arrive grew closer. Kory was used to his protectiveness, as she had seen it with their first, and she understood why Dick worried so much. She knew about all the losses that Dick had been forced to endure, and she understood that every one of those losses made Dick all the more determined not to lose anyone else.

But Dick fell in love with her and married her because of her independence, so he really should have known she wouldn't stop what she was doing and ask him to pick up a sack she was perfectly capable of lifting all by herself. And this baby seemed to crave tarmocks even more than Mari'ander had. Since tarmocks were unavailable, chocolate covered potato wedges would have to be an acceptable substitute.

Besides, really, peasant women on Tamaran had lifted zartocks until the very end of gestation. She might have been a princess, but surely she was at least as strong?

At the thought of her long ago lost home world, Kory had to fight off the wave of intense homesickness that overwhelmed her. One would think that having a child would have helped ease the intensity of the pain, but it had, in fact, had the opposite effect. Whenever she looked at Mari'ander, or felt the child currently in her stomach kick, Kory couldn't quite stop the sorrow that came with knowing she will never be able to share the full joy of Tamaran with either of them.

Oh, they'll know the customs, the traditions, the foods, and the rituals. They'll hear stories about their Tamaranean aunts and uncles until both children were as familiar with them as they were the ever present Earth Aunts and Uncles. But it won't ever really be the same as it would if she were able to take them there, to show them their heritage first hand.

She and Dick had planned to give all of their children Tamaranean first names. After all, as Dick had so proudly explained, "They'll all have my human last name, and their names should reflect both of their heritages."

It had seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea at the time. But Kory knew, as she watched Mari'ander playing outside with her father, and felt their second child kicking, that this baby would not bear a Tamaranean name.

It was obvious, from the way that Mari'ander played with her father, that she was her mother's child. Mari'ander's favorite game was tag. But when she ran, it was a sporadic run, with the only objective being not to get caught. Her father, though playing with a four year old, had a definite pattern and a clear plan on how to win at tag. Though the amount of love they have for one another was plain to see from the kitchen window, it was equally as obvious how different they were from one another. Mari'ander was a free spirited child with little time for rules or regulation, much like Kory herself. Kory remembered her child's spirit being as equally carefree while Mari'ander was still in the womb. The child had never actually kicked in one spot, instead choosing to get a free range of Kory's insides.

As Kory watched as Dick triumphantly grabbed Mari'ander, hoisted her in the air above his head, and began the human tradition of tickling, she knew that their second child would be nothing at all like the first. This one kicked rapidly in the same two spots and kicked so much that Dick had insisted on subjecting Kory to the JLA medical team to make certain everything was okay. Once his worries had been averted, he had simply patted Kory's stomach and referred to the child within as "My little acrobat."

They had never had acrobats on Tamaran, but Kory knew her husband had been one. When Mari'ander had been old enough to walk, Dick had taken her to the circus. Their first child hadn't been impressed, but Kory was willing to bet that their second child will be as enraptured by the circus as her father because this baby will be as much her father's child as Mari'ander was her mother's. Which is why, when it came time to name their little acrobat, this one will be named Haley, after the circus that gave the world Kory's husband.

Kory won't mind not giving their second child a Tamaranean name, because she remembered the look of bittersweet contentment on her husband's face that day at the circus and she knew that she wasn't the only one who had lost a home that could never be regained.

Tamaranean custom had placed a good deal of importance on giving a child a proper name.

Mari'ander's enthusiastic squeals snapped Kory back into the present. Picking a knife, Kory willed away the melancholy thoughts, clearly brought on by the pregnancy hormones. Homesickness didn't go well with morning sickness, anyway.

Besides, she needed to finish her snack before Dick came back in. She didn't want there to be any evidence of moving potato sacks to have to explain.


End file.
